to the exhibit

of the chapter
"Pyrography or Burnt-Wood Etching"
in the 1893 book

Amateur Art
by Henri Clarise

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Pyrography or Burnt-Wood Etching by Henri Clarise, 1893 (First copyright listed as 1884) Adapted from the chapter "Pyrography or Burnt-Wood Etching" from the book AMATEUR ART Published by the Amateur Art Company, Chicago, 1893, pp. 75–84.

The 1893 book Amateur Art by Henri Clarise, a prominent art educator of the 19th Century was published by the Amateur Art Company of Chicago. The chapter "Pyrography or Burnt-Wood Etching" on pp. 75–84 of that book, is exhibited above. It is a very nice overview of the pyrographic art form.

The first three pages of this chapter talk about the history and possibilities of pyrography. The intriguing history cited of Rembrandt and Hals, Brouwer and Teniers (without specific references) has been cited elsewhere (likewise without specific references). The custom of burning images on the wainscots of the alehouses of earlier times was even found depicted in one instance; that image is displayed in the Antique Hall of the E-Museum. Nevertheless, a specific example of this sort of work has yet to be found.

In addition, mention is made in this exhibit of a country home in England with pyrographic panels of the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Because J. William Fosdick was known to have done a series of panels of this motif, and since its provenance is unknown since it was exhibited in 1889 in St. Louis and pictured in the 1892 Franklin Smith article Etching With Fire, it is thought that perhaps it is one and the same series that ended up in England. Unfortunately, the reference here was not specific.

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If you have either any questions to ask or any additional information to offer about the author of the pyrography chapter in this book or references made there, please e-mail the E-Museum Curator.

You are leaving the Exhibit of the "Pyrography or Burnt-Wood Etching" chapter from the book
Amateur Art
by Henri Clarise.